nealtw
Contractor retired
Went to look at a little repair!! Let me start by explaining what happens with these new houses with all this open space. Everything above these open spaces is held up with engineered beams, steel or wood or engineered girder trusses. The key word is engineered from the people who decide on the design of the roof to the geo-tech that checks the strength of the dirt the footing will sit on and they pay more attention to where the load will land on the footing.
The homeowners wanted to take a wall down only eight feet long. Contractor #1 determined it was a non-bairring wall and started to remove it. They found a 4ply 2x6 post 2 ft from one side and did some more checking and found a 3ply girder truss sitting on it. They refused to go further without an engineer being involved and they were sent packing as they were just trying to run the bill up.
Contractor#2 Says no problem and removes the post and installs a 3ply 2x10 beam from the outside wall to the wall beside the staircase 9ft, no big deal. They evan run extra studs in the two walls and went down stairs and added more studs in the staircase wall and solid blocking to the high foundation on that side.
All sounds good if you say it fast. Over a few monthe beam sagged a little and the doors started to fall out of sq up stairs.
We found the beam has sagged 1 1/2" but was also out of level so we checked the basement and found the curb wall at the staircase had broke in two places and sunk another inch.
Contractor #2 is nowhere to be found.
I suggested putting it back the way it was or calling an engineer, but I was as bad as contractor #1 and just wanted to run the bill up.
The homeowners wanted to take a wall down only eight feet long. Contractor #1 determined it was a non-bairring wall and started to remove it. They found a 4ply 2x6 post 2 ft from one side and did some more checking and found a 3ply girder truss sitting on it. They refused to go further without an engineer being involved and they were sent packing as they were just trying to run the bill up.
Contractor#2 Says no problem and removes the post and installs a 3ply 2x10 beam from the outside wall to the wall beside the staircase 9ft, no big deal. They evan run extra studs in the two walls and went down stairs and added more studs in the staircase wall and solid blocking to the high foundation on that side.
All sounds good if you say it fast. Over a few monthe beam sagged a little and the doors started to fall out of sq up stairs.
We found the beam has sagged 1 1/2" but was also out of level so we checked the basement and found the curb wall at the staircase had broke in two places and sunk another inch.
Contractor #2 is nowhere to be found.
I suggested putting it back the way it was or calling an engineer, but I was as bad as contractor #1 and just wanted to run the bill up.